Alecia Lipton, spokeswoman for Hoxworth Blood Center, said summer months are usually a hard time for blood centers because their frequent donors are on vacation, schools out and people's schedules are different.

The need for blood in the summer increases, so the blood center does a number of events to incentivize blood donation: baseball ticket giveaways, a Bunbury ticket raffle and partnerships with Rhinegeist and Moerlein Lager House.

The blood center put out a plea Tuesday for O positive and O negative blood donors. O negative blood is the only blood type that can be safely given to everyone, whatever their blood type.

Have tats or piercings? You might still be able to donate.

Lipton said so long as the tattoo or piercing was done by a licensed facility in Ohio or Kentucky, you can give blood.